Darth Kallig: Reminiscence
by Vergeltern
Summary: Follow the story of a man through darkness, from mando'a to black guard. They said to forge the future you must break with the past. But sometimes it's easier to ally with the past than to fight it. They said darkness is the end of everything. But sometimes it's just a new beginning. This story will contain some violent scene, which will be rated M.
1. Chapter 1

**Somewhere in the forest of Naboo, 33 BBY**

The sixteen-years-old young boy liked to gaze at the stars. They seemed so peaceful, far away from mens and their foolish nature. But this planet, comprised of woods and lakes was peaceful too. Way more peaceful than the one of his ancestors he only knew through some holographic image or tales of a glorious past his parents told him before sleep.

Sometimes, he could see a small vessel emerging from hyperspace - not the ship itself, as small freighters weren't that big-, but they blacked out some stars when emerging. Naboo wasn't a very visited world and often it was just republican or consular ship doing round-trip to Coruscant. Even if Naboo hadn't any precious resources or influence due to former events of galactic history decades, or even centuries ago, it was said that its senator possessed some authority on the city-planet. Politics was not the concern of his parents of course, they weren't nabooan citizen and couldn't vote. And still, as his father would often say : what's the meaning of voting for a representative who is sieging at hundred of parsecs ? None. Such a response was logic, the culture from which they come wasn't republic lovers. It was quite the opposite.

But this time, the number and the size of the ships that appeared were way more above usual. They seemed to create new constellations with all the lights on them. What did it happen again ? Some bureaucrats who was angry ? Or just a pointless political plot for the people outside of the said plot. A bit puzzled by the sheer numbers of the arriving fleet, the young boy stand up of the old stump on which he was sitting, and walk toward the house. It was a simple house made of wood, build by his parents over the years. And it was in the central room that he met them, resting on chair while playing sabbak.

The father quickly noticed the astonishment of his son, and asked, as his boy was reluctant to explain why he come back sooner than usual :

" Hey, what's going on Xaleer ? Seen some ghost ?"

" No, just that the space traffic is a bit too much for a simple hyperspace jam. I truly wonders what is happening right now."

" Don't worry, son. Bureaucrats of the republic will deal with others bureaucrats, bride or corrupt some people, and they will go to somewhere else to do almost the same thing. Besides, this planet has no easily accessible resources, so there's no point in attacking it." His father, named Korma Feral replied.

" And if they do something that stupid, it won't be long. Nabooans are not a fighting people like ours. But if they mess with us we won't just wait for some republic or Jedis, we will fight !" His mother Sathene found the situation to be nothing to be worried about, pulling her mandoan blaster of her belt.

This was enough to calm the young mandoa. They had lived for almost two decade here, far away from mandalore quite peacefully. They were living in some kind of autharcy, away from the inhabitants of this planet. They weren't forced in this way, they just left mandalore when they saw all martial traditions slowly disappearing to be replace by some kind of republic which did not make any sense in mandalorian culture. And this republic wanted them to become workers or traders, pushing aside all they warrior heritage. They tried to show its flaws by revealing a slave traffic, but it didn't end well, as their very clan ended up rejecting them, as the said clan was making profit of this ring.

He thought life could be simple on this peaceful planet with thousand lakes. Yet he didn't know what kind of fate he could have. Bounty hunters were pretty much the only way for a mando'a to remain a known warrior, still this idea wasn't in phase with stories of past battles against Jedi that were filling the head of the young mando'a.

The next day would be rich in events. At first the day began like each day, with the sun rising up from the horizon. But his mother seemed to be concerned about something, as she was trying to heard some coms over an old modified radio. They caught something speaking of negotiations, and the outcome of those was simple: plain and utter failure. And just fifteen minutes after this, they could heard big buzzing sound, as landing ships which looked like giant metallic dragonflies were cruising through the sky. They all went out of the house to watch the direction toward which they were flying.

" They are flying toward the plains in the north, I think. There's no worries to have, I don't think they will try to land here." His father ensured them, watching them using the targeting system on his mandalorian helmet, equipped with some binoculars.

Yet it happened. A transport ship was gliding toward the clearing where their house was built. If it landed, the blast of wind created by the repulsors would utterly destroyed the wooden house.

" Xaleer, go get the rocket launcher. Time to fire some welcome fireworks for these droids." His mother sternly ordered, and he ran toward the armory of the house, a dual gate cabinet with a five centimeter durasteel plating. The single tube of the rocket launcher and the ionic warheads were pretty heavy, but the almost martial his parents submit him had give him enough energy to carry the tube and one warhead, however he wasn't running on his way back to the open, but walking.

" Great. I bet those stupid droids haven't planned three mandalorian firing at them." Xaleer said, as he handed the rocket launcher to his mother.

Carefully, she aimed at the droid transport ship. And five second later, the ionic warhead impacted below the ship. Its repulsor were shut down by the powerful electromagnetic pulse, and as gravity was catching up with him, the large metallic structure fell like a stone.

Yet they didn't foreseen such a sudden fall. His parents and himself thought the transport ship would glide into the forest and explode there, but due to the very poor aerodynamics - which usually were compensated by the repulsor- the fall was quicker. And the out of control ship slammed right into their wooden house. Like the charge of a rancor, it path was unstoppable. And what resulted of this was the utter destruction of their house. The only thing left was the armory. At least the stored ionic warheads didn't explode on impact, or they would have feel the pulse, even for organics.

And so began their long march toward Theed, the capital of Naboo. There, they planned to steal either a nabooan or a trade federation ship, and leave this damn system.

On their way to the capital, they had few skirmishes with trade federation and their clankers, who in small numbers were no match for three mandalorian armed with heavier blasters. Only one shot was needed to disable them.

Still, the martial training of Xaleer wasn't stop during this exile. Using a wooden staff hardened through fire and some modified electrodes they retrieve on the fallen droids, his father made him some kind of electrostaff. He taught Xaleer how to fight with this weapon when they were stationning at a place for the night. Their first sparring sessions were quite painful for Xaleer, as his father did not restrain his kicks of vibroblades, giving to his son a pretty nice collection of bruises.

His mother was more of a tech savvy and so she taught him how to slice through droids or how to reprogram fallen ones. It was pretty funny to see, droids firing on each other before being disintegrated by blaster fire.

During this forced exile, they avoid most cities or towns, as great number of droids forces were stationed there. Often his parents would complain of the lack of fighting will of nabooans, as most of these cities could have been at least fortified, or defended. They had the advantage of defending in urban terrain, yet none was willing to die against the trade federation forces. The three mandalorian didn't see any honor in fighting against machines without consciousness, and not much fighting for a bunch of coward.

Why cowards ? Because of the answer his father got from a nabooan citizen who saw them destroying a little unit of eleven droids along with a small repulsor tank, which Sathene destroyed using one ionic warhead as a remote land mine, when his father try to gave to this men a blaster from the destroyed droids. He sternly refused to take arms, saying nonsensical thought such as "only the royal guard are authorized to have blaster according to their law'' or "We should better wait for the help of Jedi than profit-driven bounty Hunters''.

"We are what they made us." His father replied, knowing the great defeat the Jedi inflicted to his people centuries ago. Yet it was other Jedis. Jedis which his people respected at some point. But at another point the Jedi ceased to be warriors to be just judicials for a now corrupted and blind senate.

It was the only time they spoke with nabooans. The only time they tried to offer help. If they didn't want their help and prefer to die waiting, it was their choice.

So they resumed their walk toward Theed, avoiding even more the populated area.

When they finally arrived after several weeks of walk, they were quite surprised. The city was in utter chaos, with royal guards firing at droids. Now their plan changed a bit: using the chaos to find some trade federation shuttle or fighter for organics. They quickly made their way through the street filled with dead corpses or disintegrated droids. A few repulsor lifted tank were burning on a central place.

At some point, as they had gone on the roofs to find their way into the streets of Theed, they saw a strange fighter, not looking like any trade federation droid fighter, uncloaked in mid-air before gliding toward a small hollow cylindrical building to land inside. On a hunch, they decide to run toward this building, which was very close to the royal Palace of Naboo, from where smoke was pouring, showing the surprising intensity of the fight for a pacific people. Opening the armored door was not long thanks to the plasma cutter they were carrying. Few droids were here, but they settled their score without too much difficulties. The ship had already landed, and it was difficult for them to analyse its origin, as the design was unknown to them : a long fine fuselage with four small curved wings on the back of the spaceship. The ramp was already deployed. With a sign of his blaster, his father intimate him the order to go check the ship. Xaleer walk three meter toward the unknown ship, before sighting a cloaked figure. Two hateful yellow eyes looked at him. He pick up his blaster reflexively, but it was taken out of his hand by an unknown reason, and tossed aside with a hand gesture of the unknown person.

And then shit hit the ionic turbofan to say the least. Xaleer was pushed back several feet like he weighs nothing, and landed painfully on his back. The only thing he could distingate then was his mother putting him behind some protective blast door near the entrance where he had landed before he heard a shot and the blast door was sealed. After this he slowly began to recover from his fall, hearing the familiar sound of vibroblades, along with some electric buzzing, similar to a plasma cutter but with the intensity timed by thousand. Only one weapon was emitting this sound, he mused.

" I wasn't prepared to see the Queen of Naboo hiring mandalorian assassins, let alone the Jedi with her." The voice of the cloaked person spoke, before revealing his face, the red face of a zabrak covered with tribal tattoos.

" We have nothing to do with them." Korma said firmly, twirling his vibro blade.

" We never allied with Jedis, nor with Siths. For mandalore." The voice of his mother replied, before he heard the blade clashing.

Both mando'a were not truly battle-hardened, but had good reflexes and a good coordination. However the red dual bladed lightsaber of their zabrak opponent was the perfect tool to fight in such circumstances. He could parry with one blade, then counter-attack with the other. He was not fighting. Just toying with them, with their futile hope of vanquishing a Sith warrior. Even the padawan he killed a few weeks ago had been a greater challenge.

There was a raison to his current superiority, and not only the Force : they had been walking for weeks, this leaving them exhausted. They couldn't match the sheer speed of a Sith in those circumstances.

At some point, they tried to block him in a corner, attacking him in the same time from high. But he dodged the attack with ease by a backflip, before bearing on the wall to strike at them. The shockwave his Force-enhanced attack made when he hit the ground make them stumble a bit, and as so when he stand up while whirling with his blade, he cut in the process the knee of Sathene. With her leg almost torn off, she was easily kick to the ground by a strong thrust of the zabrak, the fall hurting her with her own vibroblade.

" You are nothing compared to me. There's a reason why the mandalorian were submitted to the sith once." The zabrak said, as Korma took the vibroblade of his wife and tried to attack him, but was block anyway.

Both combattants separated themselves a few seconds after the violent parry of the sith. The sith twirled his weapon before getting in some kind of fighting stance, sideways to Xaleer's father, his dual-bladed lightsaber tilted diagonally

" For mandalore !" Xaleer heard his father screaming. But he could not see, still behind this blastdoor.

He did not see his father and the sith launching themselves on each other. He did not see his father deviating the first thrust, before counter attacking with both vibroblade on the dual bladed lightsaber, blocking the sith momentary. He could not see the spark of hope in his father's eyes as he saw his wife aiming at the Sith from behind.

But the Sith push him back violently before stopping the shots by a rotation of his lightsaber. Grabbing her blaster through the Force, he tossed it aside before dodging by a quick side-step a high kick from Korma. The zabrak retaliate by severing the right arm of the mandalorian, cutting through flesh and armor like in butter. However this left him in a precarious situation, as he ended up for a second with his dual lightsaber over his head, his chest wide open to attack.

Despite the great pain in his arm, the mando'a tried to strike. He thrust his vibroblade right at the shoulder of the zabrak, but he step down before blocking his remaining arm with the hilt of his lightsaber violently, crushing his bones. And then all he could see for the last second of his life was the lightsaber rotating around the left shoulder of his opponent. To behead him.

His wife didn't last long. She had try to kreep toward her blaster, but it's hard to keep going forward with the spine cut by a lightsaber.

The zabrak went for the blast door and began plunging his lightsaber in hit, melting it partially. This sent a shivering chill to Xaleer's spine, as he was getting up with his kind of electrostaff on -even if he knew he wouldn't last long against this kind of opponent-.

" Sir, I have a transmission incoming from the master." A droid interrupted him with his mechanical voice.

The Sith warrior ceased his doing, leaving a blast door halfway melt to kneel respectfully in front of the holo-projector. Another cloaked figure began to speak with a authoritar voice.

" I do not send you here to clear the weaks of this planet. But to kill two Jedis. The master among then must not reach our neimoidian friends. Or they could learn about us." His master warned.

" I will enact as you requested, master." The zabrak humbly replied.

" Good. Bring those two Jedis to the death and your next mission will finally turn you into a worthy apprentice." His dark master recalled the better motive he could have.

" I will act quickly then. The last of those mandalorian exiled is wounded, the trade federation forces should be able to kill a boy." He understand these three opponents have truly nothing linking them to the Queen of Naboo, yet they allow her to live by delaying him.

" Good then. We will talk again if you survive, apprentice." His master wished him indirectly to survive to see what the Sith truly were.

" I will." The apprentice ended the talk, extinguishing his lightsaber before concealing it into the dark depth of his dark tunique, before heading toward the palace with great determination.

" Blast this door!" The mechanic voice of a droid commander with a slight red armor plating.

" Uh, Sir, it's a blast door." A droid commented.

" Then cut it and kill the organic inside." The commandant said with anger.

Xaleer saw the door slowly resume its melting. Yet this time it was a circle of the door who was glowing. Their plasma cutter didn't allow them to go through metal like lightsaber did, but they would go through this door definitely. Despite being wounded from his fall, maybe with a sprained ankle which seemed to burn all his right feet every time he take a step, he stood up, holding his electrostaff.

And two minute later, a large metallic circle fall in the inside of the corridor where he was hiding. A droid came inside, only to be smashed by a kick from Xaleer's electrostaff. For a few seconds, they kept coming one by one. So he kept destroying one by one as soon as they entered. But when he had to kill two in a row, he ended up being in the open.

" Open fire!" The commander shouted, only to be shot by the weapon of a fallen droid Xaleer had picked up.

Yet the five remaining droid had heard the order, and opened fire on the mandalorian. His parents were unable to help him blacksmith an armor of beskar, the legendary alloy of mandalorian armor, due to the row material being solely on mandalore. So he had to wear some armor made of light ceramic plating. It absorb well the kinetic energy, but not all the thermic one - in other words he get at least ten first degree burn as he shot down those five droids.

He hadn't the possibility to bury the dead corpses of his parents. Yet burning them would be enough to honor them. He pick up the last ionic warhead his mother was carrying, and overload the detonator. This kind of weaponry usually produce just electromagnetic pulse aimed against electronic devices and droids, but overload them and they would blow up pretty violently, and also creating an intense heat wave, burning everything in a small radius. He would have fight minutes before the inside of this whole building would contain nothing but ashes.

He was now heading toward the ship. If any more of those droids arrive, he would be in trouble. He hoped this ship would contain a bit of kolto to heal his wounds, but it was something he did not expect from a spaceship belonging to a Sith. He was walking on the ramp when another patrol of droids came. He hurried inside despite his wounded leg, and closed the sas quickly. He did not get any more burn this time, and the ships hull seemed to be resilient to the light blaster the droid were carrying. At least for now.

Xaleer gave a quick look to the inside of the ship : it was built along a linear structure, with some kind of meditation room near the engine, an holo-projector at the middle of the ship and a small glass cockpit at the front. He rushed toward the cockpit, but was lost in the commands. Nothing was written in aurebesh. Only in this technical language they called high galactic. At least the shield indicator was in good state and still in the green : it could hold its own even against heavy blaster, Xaleer guessed.

But he didn't have to look very long for the take off mechanism. Somehow he must have triggered some automated sequence, as he could feel the aircraft taking flight, and heard the blaster ricochetting on the shield. Yet it wasn't the only thing that had been activated : an automated holo-projections was displayed on the central projector, giving only some incomprehensible informations for Xaleer's mandalorian point of view.

" If you come here alive, then I suppose you have taken the Jedi down. Your ship will automatically go to your next assignment, as this old planet is not featured on current hyperspace lanes. There you will find answer where this ship will land."

" Answer to what ? Or to who maybe ?" Xaleer rhetorically asked, knowing he wouldn't get any answer from the hologram.

As he was hearing those recordings, the ship was shaken a bit by a sudden shockwave. The ionic warhead just detonated, and now his parents were gone forever.

After recovering its stability, the ship was still ascending, and judging by some indicators on the cockpit, its cloaking device was already on. Xaleer sit on the only siege of the small cockpit, seeing the end of the atmosphere. He break his electrostaff in half and scratching some band of fabric from his tunique, made a temporar splint for his ankle. At least now it was less painful, as he wasn't walking anymore.

However, nothing could have readied him for the scene he witnessed just after leaving Naboo : a fierce dogfight was taking place between a few nabooan starfighter, which hade some kind of a y shape but with elegant curves and a bright golden paintjob on the top with a white belly painting. The overwhelming vulture droid on the other side where just a pod linked to four linear wing, painted in a dark grey. The organic were desperately fighting overwhelming forces, and their number was slowly decreasing. At one point one of them was hit on the side and spin toward the droid core ship, a great troncated ring with the spheric control ship at its center.

" This one is going to die soon." The mandalorian mused, as he saw the small fighter going into the ship through one of its hangar bays.

Yet fate decide to take a 180-degree turn to what he had foreseen. His space ship was now calculating the hyperspace jump, but for the few seconds before the jump he could see the final act of the space battle. He foresaw a trade federation victory, and now the huge core ship was exploding from the inside. As his ship jumped, he felt nothing but a bit of hope for the nabooan. Maybe they weren't just pacifist cowards after all if they had the guts to take down a droid control ship.

And now, as this unknown ship was taking him to a unknown planet, he was wondering what path he could choose. Of course, he would set for any path that could allow him to first get some healing for his wounded body and second revenge. However he was now hopeless, having lost everything he had and knew. His fighting spirit was as destroyed as the control ship above Naboo. He only felt an immense wave of regret for his past lives, a somewhat harsh and martial way of life, but at least he wasn't alone. Now he was alone and with nothing to guide him except the hologram he saw sooner but didn't understand. He had nothing and was nothing more than an exiled. And in the end, the path this Sith master had put this ship into was very likely to cause his death, as he was no force-sensitive. At least he would welcome death if it allows him to see his parents again, even if they told him many times there was nothing after death. Only emptiness was waiting for him now.

**End of the prologue. I Hope this story will have some return and like. I publish it once on the app Wattpad (and in French). But this new version will have few on common with the Wattpad one. I know some mando'a were capable of fighting maul for a time, but the one who end up fighting him die anyway. But is death an end or a new beginning ?**

**Feel free to comment, like, favorise, etc...**


	2. Arc Dromund: dark encounter

The ship had just come out of hyperspace in a system identified as "Dromund" by the map he managed to set on aurebesh. This system was unknown to him, and he never heard this parents talk about this system.

At first when he took a glimpse at the celestial bodies in the system he believed there was an asteroid field among the system, near the orbit of the only habitable planet, labelled as "Dromund Kaas". But as his ship get closer, he realized his mistake : what he had taken for asteroids were huge part of spacecrafts, which decades, centuries or even millennia agglomerate through gravity, creating asteroid of cables, metallic plating or truncated space destroyer. And the few less destroyed ship seemed to be immeasurably old. This planet must have seen huge space battles, maybe with thousand of ships against thousands enemies, which could make the little battle between one droid control ship and a dozen nabooan starfighter look like a sparring session.

Yet the ship keep moving closer to the planet, gliding among the mountains of debris orbiting it. The biggest ones were abandoned dagger shaped ships with the hull pierced by thousand holes created by battles or the effect of time. His parents had told him legends of Sith empires of past time sometimes. However they always said it was a long, long time ago. And he never thought he would see the warships of this old era one day.

The main planet seemed dead. No artificial lights were seen on the side in the night, and the whole planet seemed to be engulfed in thick black clouds. And the few opening in the clouds only opened on black terrain, without any structure to be seen, or even any trees nor a single bit of grass. The entire planet reeked darkness. It wasn't needed to be a force-sensitive to feel a sentiment of oppression while looking at this desolate world.

And despite seeing this darkened and threatening planet, Xaleer didn't try to stop the automatic pilot. The Sith master had mentioned he would find answers - however the master deserved those lines to a Sith apprentice , not an exiled mandalorian whose parents were killed by his very apprentice-. And of course Xaleer wanted answers to all of this. Or maybe just find some living being that could help heal his wounds. Even if he did not see a single light as his stolen ship flew above the ruins of a city flanked by what should have been imposing walls and a three tower fortress. The whole area was surrounded by dead trees. No leaf, green or any existing color. Some have their branches toward the sky, like some assembly praying for some celestial savior. But the majority had their branches toward the ground, like if the nature itself of this darkened planet ceased to wait for someone to save them.

There were only emptiness, darkness and coldness here. So, what was keeping him from interrupting the automatic pilot ? Just bare answers, or the pull of darkness, as a Jedi would say ? Xaleer couldn't reply. Nothing seemed to contain answers here.

However, the flight into the planet's atmosphere wasn't that long. Or maybe he wasn't fully awake during the entire flight. Still, at some point, he was surprised that the ship stopped its forward advance to land on a small circular landing pad. There was at least three of them, but there was no other ships here.

Then, a second automatic hologram was displayed on the center of the ship. Always the same cloaked old men, with his strange voice.

" The truth you seek is in the tumb down the way just next to the landing pad. You will need all your power of the dark side to survive there, apprentice."

This answer only scared Xaleer. He was definitely not a force-sensitive, so if a Sith could die, he was going to and this very likely. But what other options did he have ? None. The hyperpropulsor seemed to indicate it didn't have any more fuel for long jump back to the mid-rim or even the first region of the outer rim. He could jump to another close system, but he was in an empty region of galactic space, without any civilized world nearby.

The young mandalorian decided to go outside the ship. He hadn't anything to loose in trying to investigate those ruins. Of course nothing could be alive after millennia. His only hope was to find some old long range comms or at least a map of the galactic sector. He did not hope to find a space-worthy space ship either. If there was maybe some ship on this desolated planet, they must be only big piles of scrap and junk now.

So he went down the way, which was in pale grey gravel when the earth around was dark. Yet it was not a full dark. He could see the ground around the way seemed to be covered by dark cinders. Usually wood produce grey cinders. Volcanism produces sometimes black cinders, but this planet didn't seem to have active volcanoes. What could have produced them and in such great quantity to cover almost the entire place and maybe planet was a mystery to him.

At some point on his way he saw wreckage of old battle droids. The less destroyed ones looked like a four leg walking machine with two arms bearing their weapons. The droidekas he saw once in a town of Naboo serving as turrets were not that different. It was strange that a design was common in a forgotten empire and in a trade federation. Maybe it was an efficient one, and sometimes they said "never fix something until it's broken". There was maybe no point in changing the design then.

But he quickly began to run despite his sprained ankle for a reason which didn't seem to have anything link to some ghost of Sith lord being angry of the presence of a mandalorian, but for a more earthly reason. A thunder had started, and the metallic wreckage of droids or the dead trees seemed to attract lightnings. He couldn't wait too much outside. Hopefully the travel from the landing pad to the tomb was maybe one or two kilometer long, so he was in a short time to safety.

The tumb in which he entered looked like to be abandoned. A arch was the entrance, setting the design to a tunnel into the mountains. There was no sign of apparent light sources and even the sun wasn't visible, but a diffuse light allow him to at least watch his step. He kept advancing for a while, descending a few steps down, before entering in what seemed to be the main room of the tomb : a great hypostyle room.

He stopped as he was on the threshold of the room. Small coffers were on the side of the room, containing maybe old treasures or secondary sarcophagus. Eight pillars, four on each side of the room were supporting the roof. There were no ornaments, no painting, only naked wall of dark grey stone. Maybe there were some centuries or millennia ago, but there was nothing left now. The only ornament of the room was one broken statue which could be representing a force-user, as only the lower part was still standing, featuring the draping of the dress they usually bore.

However, nothing could have readied him for the gruesome scene he saw. In the back of the room below the broken statue laid a massive parallelepipedic sarcophagus. There were traces of frescoes, but they seemed to have been hit by something with so much anger that he couldn't decipher them. Still, this was still normal ornament for a grave. But the layer of skeletons, comprising dozen of old bodies at the feet of the sarcophagus was pretty scary. The bones were not white, but covered by those dark cinders. Something should have burned them. But what ? There was no sign of burns among the soil. Only pieces of armor were on some skeletons.

As he walked closer to the pile of skeleton, he noticed that the wind he heard while entering was getting stronger and colder. And if the wind he seemed to heard incomprehensible murmurs. Now he was scared. He could feel cold sweat flowing in his back. He was nearly goose bumped when he reached the skeletons. And then he heard him. It wasn't whispers any more. But the murmurs were still incomprehensible.

" You make the last mistake of your existence, mandalorian." An ice cold voice said.

Puzzled, Xaleer turned to the entrance and then he saw him. A bluish apparition was standing right in front of him. A face filled with riddles partially hidden by a dark hoodie. His body was covered by an old metallic of plates, witch was hiding most of his back and legs. The armor was featuring some shoulder plating put on the cloak. Xaleer had the feeling this ghost was throwing him a deadly glare, and this time it wasn't something figurative. Truly, the eyes of the apparition were filled with cold hate toward the intruder.

" I hate kids. Always striving for powers they don't deserve." The ghost said.

" Well, if your offspring killed you millennia ago it's not my fault. Maybe there was something wrong with your parenting." Xaleer retorted, even if he knew it was useless to try arguing with a blood-thirsty Sith. Still, he could try to save his life.

" Enough of this. You break into my tomb. You deserve punishment." The Sith said with a murderous tone.

Immediately, Xaleer drew his blaster and fired at the Sith, only to see the shots going through the apparition.

" You cannot kill someone who is already dead." The Sith said, before force-grabbing the blaster and exploding it on one of the pillars.

Xaleer then try to run to the entrance but as he passed by the Sith, he felt like a hand pulling him back and throwing him into the pile of skeleton. A bit taken aback by his little fly, he still try to stand up and throw some bones at the Sith.

And the Sith apparition caught the skull in mid-air, before exploding it in a thousand pieces. He stretched his gloved hands toward Xaleer and the mandalorian hit hard the flank of the tomb, having to hold onto the cover of the sarcophagus not to fall. He was astonished that a ghost who logically do not belong any more to the physical World could still interactif with it and with so much ease.

" But you're just a ghost. How can .." Xaleer was about to asked to the apparition but was choked and so interrupted in his question.

" Do not take me for some conjurer of cheap tricks ! I am Darth Andru, Lord of the Sith. On your knees, miserable creature." The Sith retorted with anger, before downing his hands.

Xaleer was forced to kneel. But then like if an invisible hand had grabbed him by the collar of his tunique, he was thrown on the upper side of the sarcophagus. At this point in time he could not move anymore. Not move a single finger nor close his eyes. He couldn't even blink. However he was curious why he hadn't choke to death already, but so many thing were occurring unnaturally right now that he wasn't surprised that much.

" Killing is easy, living is hard they said." The Sith said. " So you don't have to fear death. Yet there are things way more frightening than death."

To these words, some of the black cinders which were covering the skeleton was lifted to fall on his body. And then his sufferance began. Each cinder began to heat up and glow. They disintegrated the thin fabric and burn their way to the skin, even through the ceramic plating. If they stopped there Xaleer would just have first degree burns. Obviously, the Sith didn't stop there.

The tiny cinder that the apparition added like he was spicing some meal burned through the skin. Now it was like all his veins and arteries were on fire. He want to cry and scream due to the pain but he could not. He could only feel tears gliding on the skin of his cheeks. At first he could see what the Sith was doing. But when cinder began to fall on his eyes he was blinded, and he couldn't felt any more tears of pain coming of his eyes. He could just felt his body burning from the inside.

If he could have look at a mirror right now, Xaleer would have been surely afraid by the sight of his own body. The light green color of the vein was slowly replaced by a pitch black.

" Your body is becoming force-sensitive through pain, i know. And soon it will be a perfect mobile anchor for me. Then your spirit will be torn apart while i will finally be liberated from this cold clay in which i was imprisoned." The Sith said, ending his speeches with a frightening laugh who seemed to be coming from another world to be so cold and crude.

Xaleer could have accepted death. Death would have been a liberation for him too. However be used as a toy by some Sith Lord was not his planned way to die. If there was a way to kill himself right now he would have choose it.

" Hum, trying to fight are you ? Maybe once i will have submitted your neuronal system to darkness your fighting spirit will be destroyed through pain." The Sith said while tightening his grasp on the dark cinders within Xaleer's body.

The small burning particles migrated again from the veins to the nerves, and the pain was excruciating for the young mandalorian. His whole body was darkening. After losing sight and touch, he lost smell. Maybe the Sith wanted him to keep hearing so he could keep taunting him. Now he could understand the warning of that Sith master on the stolen ship.

And if Xaleer was suffering, his spirit on the verge of collapsing due to the intense pain the Sith put him through, Darth Andru was almost happy. He felt even anchored to his tomb the resurgence of his fellow Sith. Living ones. And the apprentice of the two was on the verge of death. Maybe once he would have conquered this body and turned into his, he could join this new had forgotten him due to the sheer fear he created then. The galaxy would learn to fear the name of Andru again. He already seen himself slaying the republic and its pathetic Jedi.

He could feel the spirit of the mandalorian getting weaker, like a candle blown by the wind of his anger, like a tea light his all powerful darkness would quickly extinguish. Nothing could save the spirit of this boy to be mutilated to a point were he could sever him from his own material anchor and sentenced him to be caged here on Dromund Kaas for eternity. His mad laugh filled the room and could have been heard even outside the tomb

At this point, in his own spiritual realm, the soul of Xaleer was nothing more than a small silhouette surrounded by darkness. He was seeing himself at the top of cliffs, stumbling, push over by his oppressor Darth Andru. And each time, he felt weaker when he stand up after his fall. Each time he was more wounded.


	3. Arc Dromund: Salvation

Yet Andru had forgotten one crucial Sith thought: watch on your master and your apprentices. And if he considers having no more living apprentices or master, he forget there were a true master of the Force other than him on this desolated planet.

And in a over tomb at some kilometers of Andru's, this soul was awake. His tomb was way different than Andru's. If the Darth has only a small troglodyte hypostyle room as his tomb, this one was caged into a bigger one. The living Sith of this planet called it the dark temple. His shape was a massive truncated pyramid with his top flattened, but with two arrows emerging of the structure. Still, he share the design of having a great hypostyle room with eight pillars. However, this room was opened on many corridors and steps leading secondary tomb they built here. His chamber was on the top of it, accessible by a high spiral staircase, yet he had decided to live now at the bottom of the temple, in the structure who was here before the dark temple was even built. At least there he wasn't fully alone.

A small entrance at the bottom of one side was the only way in the dark temple, which was preceded by an arched bridge, as the temple was surrounded by a dark water filled with those black cinder - a poison for the living things-. He knew it, after all it was him who cause its creation. It had been created through the darkest way of Sith alchemy he knew, but if had been created out of necessity.

" You have sensed it, haven't you ?" His interlocutress said. It was only a three dimensional hologram of a female Rakata - a nearly vanished humanoid alien species with a long head and separated eyes-. Yet this artificial intelligence had been his only compagnon for centuries since he deprived this planet of its inhabitants. She was projected out of an old Rakata relics, which comprised a strange vertical tube in a similar fashion to a bacta tank, but with way more possibility to interact if a body was set inside the device.

" I do. I thought the Jedi could at least make sure no one ever come to this planet again." The blueish apparition said with a bit of relief. If he had lungs, he would have surely sighted.

" My kind never knew their current order. But maybe the Jedi of before who swore to leave this place untouched have been forgotten by their very order too." The hologram replied.

" Whatever, great mother , Andru has caused too much chaos both in his past and present life. And thanks to you passing me the teaching of the infinite empire, i know now how to make him vanish for good." The ghost acknowledged, looking at the hologram for the last time before stretching his arm downwards to shock the ground. His lightnings glow white. To be fair they weren't pure white, but of a very bright violet, showing his impurity in the Force. The lightnings, instead of spreading erratically on the ground, move in a coordinated pattern, creating concentric circle, with the sparks of lightnings on the limit of the circle being what an artistic eye would have interpreted to be old runes. And then he vanish, his spiritual embodiment turned into pure energy.

" May the Infinite Force be with you, Aloysius Kallig, Black guard." The "great mother" said, as Kallig called her. She was the last of her kind, AIs created by the rakata to achieve what they never do : the creation of a perfect species to respond to the slow weakening in the Force of theirs. Those "mothers" had many children. And everyone know their name in the galaxy : they were called humans, zabrak, twi'lek…

Back in his tomb, Andru was exalted. He could know feel what the metamorphosed body felt. And no he was slowly transferring his consciousness into the static body of the young mando'a. Anyone would have seen the body as nothing than an atrocity right now : all the veins, arteries and nerves have been turned dark, and the path of the black cinders created even more black lines on and through the skin of Xaleer's corpses. His eyes wide open had been modified by darkness too : his pupils were gone, and all his aqueous humor was replaced with some dark fluid, while his inner veins of his eyes were colored in violet. But to Andru, it was a piece of art. The perfect body for a Force-user, enhanced through the darkest curse and tricks Sith alchemy allowed to.

And five minutes later, a light purple began to glow in Xaleer's eyes. His body was moving, but he couldn't control it. An outside observer would have seen a changed and consummated body rise while leaving the spirit it contained once. The spiritual essence of Xaleer was now attached to the top of the sarcophagus by what seemed to be dark corrupted thorny vines.

" Finally" Darth Andru exalted. This tomb would never be his anchor ever again. All he has to do was walking outside of his tomb and the curse would be finished, and this unlucky soul trapped inside forever.

Yet when he just reached the entrance of the hypostyle room white lightnings come out of the ceiling made of granite, who was an insulator. He took a step back, a bit puzzled by the sudden apparition of those concentric circles. All of this was reminding him of an old opponent, but he couldn't put a name on him right now.

And the next second, in front of him, was standing another Sith ghost. It was surprising, as they were usually caged to their tomb like he was. If this one had a similar plate armor and shoulder plating, he was wearing a mask. Not a very ornamented one, just featuring a respirator and two pieces of glass hiding the former eyes of this ghost. To be fair it seemed more to be just an helmet out of some space suit than of a true Sith.

The threatening intentions of the individual became obvious when the ghost stretched his arm inward to create some kind of a circle of lightnings, turning around an axis set on the former heart of this ghost. And then in a single push he throw at him the glowing circle. It was faster than the slow motion of the thrower could have implied.

The projectile hit him square on the chest, with spark of electricity highlighting the dark lines on his new body. Still, this projectile possessed kinetic energy too, and Andru was projected back to the center of his room. It was then that he recognize the simplistic design of the helmet, an enemy who had already bothered him too many times.

" Kallig, this is the last time you get in my way !" The almost reborn Sith grunted, standing up after his fall, with spark of electricity still around him.

" Yet it's the first time i agree with you in millennia. Because i won't let you have a next time." Kallig replied while entering the tomb of this rival.

" I won't either. Time to die Kallig ! I will finish what Tulak Hord started !" Andru retorted with the deformed voice this transformed body possessed.

After this last line, he grab the half electrostaff that was still around Xaleer's ankle. And walked slowly toward Kallig, who chooses not to follow Sith tradition by letting his opponent do the first real strike. A high blow from Andru quickly came, only to be blocked by a sphere of Force Kallig deployed from his raised arms. The sphere was of a pale translucent white. But what Andru ignored was Kallig's abilities to shock through the protection. And he learned that the hard way on the second strike, one longitudinal at the chest.

" Fight, you coward !" Andru began to get even angrier, adding lightnings to his staff strikes, but only to have them redirected or diffused by Kallig.

" I will. From my point of view possessing a mere child is cowardice too." Kallig retorted to the angry Sith Lord.

Andru thought he was just diffusing. "Big mistake here" Kallig mused. He was only accumulating the energy of his opponent. Basically quite a Jedi minded technique. Yet the release of power was something way too much brutal to be in the Jedi way. Kallig extended his arms on the side of his body, and suddenly the sphere vanished.

Yet it didn't truly vanish. It diffused in the air, like a spherical electric wave. It wasn't hard to touch, however when Andru try to block its energy he was thrown away by it.

" Enough of this. You will pay for what your offspring did to me. He used me as a weapon. Following your advice !" Andru shouted while charging lightnings between his raised arms above his head.

" Sorry if you forget the way my offspring followed as a Sith. You forgot that everything needed to be used as nothing than a tool to elevate oneself in this old way." Kallig said with chilling calm, waiting for the lightning strike.

A first came. Just a stray shot. Kallig redirected it to the walls with one simple gesture of his right hand.

A second came. A more bolder one. This time Kallig had to use his two hands to absorb it.

And then it came. Violently. Standing below a thundercloud was nothing compare to what it really is. Standing inside a thundercloud would be closer of what Kallig was living right now -even if the word living is quite an ambiguous choice for a Sith dead since millennia-. Lightnings striking from the roof, from the four column around him, and directly a violent one from the two bared hands of the possessed body. The fingers of this body who were projecting the lightnings had been overly lengthened and sharpened by the Sith alchemy, making them look like claws.

Andru was almost smiling. He could see blueish parts of Kallig being torn off by the intensity of the lightnings, circling around him in a strange vortex of lightnings . Then he stopped emitting lightnings from his hands and wait for the lightnings to end their strike on his opponent. No human could survive this. Once the offspring of Kallig, this very tomb raider who dare take possession of him did survived. But it was only due to the combined forces of the four Sith ghost he was holding at the stake of his mental and physical health. Including Andru's. He couldn't see any way for Aloysius Kallig to survive this.

What he was waiting to see was a blueish explosion and the consciousness of Kallig disappear forever. Or at least the weaken spiritual body of his opponent who would not threaten his plan to the verge of greatness.

So when his lightnings finally dissipated to uncover the untouched spiritual body of his opponent, he was frightened. He began to understand what Thanaton had felt when he saw the offspring of Kallig walking untouched of his lightnings back then. The only abnormal thing about Kallig was his eyes. They were now glowing of a bright violet. And only pure wrath was in the death glare Aloysius throw at his opponent.

Andru try to charge again his lightnings between his raised arms, but failed when his own lightnings, amplified, densified by Kallig struck him and throw him in the pile of skeleton.

" You can choose how you will vanish dark Lord of the Sith Andru. Combat, or on your knees." Kallig said, as he was shocking the body Andru was possessing. The dark lines were beginning to glow from the bright violet of his lightnings. Andru's curse would be ended soon. And then he would be vulnerable.

" Then i choose combat." The Sith retorted, but was struggling to get on his feet. The darkness was leaving Xaleer's nerves. He was losing control.

In a futile tentative to distract Kallig, he try to throw the second half of the electrostaff that did not move at all during the fight. Kallig was forced to interrupt his lightnings to avoid the projectile. Andru even attracted the over half to attack again Kallig, but the latter force-blocked his attack by his bare hand. The sudden blocking of his attack causes Andru to stumble again. With his free hand Kallig shocked him, making him let go of his weapon before grabbing him by the Force as he was stumbling even more, the connection between the spirit and the corpses was beginning to falter.

" So it will be on your knees." Kallig judged as he was shocking the head of the kneed possessed body. The muscle made erratic movement as they were stimulated, but now even Andru's feeling of the body he thought for a moment to be his was weakening to a frightening state.

The body was bright, illuminated by the furious shocks Kallig was imposing to remove the darkness, making this very darkness his own to bend it to his will. He couldn't get any darker than he already was. And finally, after a whole minute of full power lightnings, the link was severed. The body was empty of all consciousness, as Andrus was caught and pull out of it by the Force drain. Corrupted link born out of Kallig's finger were extracting him, and soon the blueish apparition was out of the body.

" You can't take what is mine !" Andru shouted in his ghost voice, trying to attack Kallig with lightnings again, but they were way weaker than when he was in a physical body.

" It isn't yours nor mines. It's his." Kallig said as he was blocking the lightnings with one hand, while with the other he touched the still empty corpse on the sternum. He was just suspending the life in this body to preserve it from loss of consciousness. Nothing more.

" Even if you save his soul, his body is so impacted by our fight that he would die instantly." Andru retorted at Kallig, seeing the vines who were holding the spiritual body of Xaleer went loose.

" You're wrong. Again. You know the damage you did on his body can be undone by Rakata technology." Kallig calmly replied, now fully focus on destroying this opponent who wait far too long for death to catch up with him.

" We ain't on Belsavis you know. And there is no way to destroy a ghost." Andru said while reinforcing his lightnings, focusing on what the offspring of Kallig had put him through.

" Wrong again oppressor. The Infinite Force of the Rakata can." Kallig deflected one last time the lightnings of Andru before raising his arm high by a slow circular motion. They met back to back before he lowering them while twirling his hand to make them met on the palm and on their backs again, before uniting his finger in a triangle, with his thumbs making its base.

And as he was descending his hands in this puzzling motion, he see it and felt it. A pure white energy. Like hyperspace if you look at it from a spaceship while travelling in it. However this energy the Rakata used in their Infinite motors wasn't something he can submitted to a precise will. He can just direct it. Toward the only target of the room, Darth Andru.

From Andru's point of view, what he just saw was Kallig twirling his arms and lowering them in a curious pattern before joining his hand. He saw the Infinite energy too. But couldn't felt it yet for an unknown reason. However he felt it very well when the white energy left the confinement Kallig was creating between his hand to hit him.

" What is this new power ?" Andru asked as he saw himself go from blueish to a pale white where the beam hit him.

" The true manipulation of the Force. Of the cosmic Force. Unlike the biologic it's not something you have a grasp on." Kallig explained as the white beam was consuming Andru's embodiment in mere seconds.

" This Can't Be Happening !" Andru shouted, before his voice went ultrasonic due to the pain of being forcefully converted into pure energy.

He try again to break free or walk toward Kallig to attack him one last time, but his embodiment was already half dissolved in the fabric of the cosmic Force. And soon his whole spiritual body went white, before disappearing into smithereens followed by near ultrasonic last screams. Where he was standing was now nothing. Only emptiness. The cosmic Force had turned him into raw energy that was now diffused in all cosmos. No consciousness could survive this. And it was a certainty. To confirm this the vines vanish into black smithereens too.

When Kallig shut the beam by spreading his palm, releasing the Infinite energy from his mere confinement, he felt great exhaustion. However he know has a life to save : body didn't like to be deprived of consciousness for too long, even with Sith alchemy to preserve it. Yet this time the "ghost walk" he used to come here through the Force wouldn't work as he needed to move both a living body and a spiritual one.

And now, floating beside him, were two corpses of the same person, that he hoped he could save him. Even at the cost of his relative freedom on this planet. What was worrying him was the dark cinders still filling his blood. Rakata technology could amend the damage to the nerves and the body. But for this broken and tormented soul, this due to the final result of Andru's curses, he didn't know what to do.

What this youngster would become was haunting his thoughts right now. Kallig hoped the spirit of this mando'a or his body would survive the treatment. Still, he could feel many thing in the paralyzed spirit : sadness, fear, anger, envy. All emotions that Sith learned to worship and instigate and that he worshiped once. Yet the transports of transcendent joy would always be better to feel than the fire of anger. Even if he hadn't felt joy for at least three whole millennia.

The Force had no answer for him when he try to think on a solution on his way to the dark temple. He just wished the great mother had one.


	4. Arc Dromund: Reborn

He hadn't felt anything since a time that he think not to be minutes or hours, but days or even weeks. After this Sith submit him to those tortures he ceased to think he would survive. Yet he was still surrounded by those black flames, in which he thought he fell into.

And then, a bright light fall on him, causing the flames which were chewing through Xaleer consciousness to step back. He saw them weakening, before being blasted away of his surrounding. However this cause him to fall into a dark abyss again. Still, this time, a blue hand stretched toward him, pulling back on some white soil. All around him was white, without notion of depth or perspective.

It was calm. Chilling. The darkness this Andru had forced into him seemed to have diminished. Maybe this was what the world after death look like. It didn't seem that scary. If death was so welcoming, he hoped his parents had been welcomed the same way.

After several minute, a blueish silhouette appeared in front of him. He couldn't recognize him, but it wasn't this Sith who tortured him. This one was wearing some kind of helmet. Surprisingly, the unknown raised his arm to shock him again with lightnings of a very bright violet.

This cause the white walls around him to shatter in a millions pieces. Apparently someone was pulling him out of paradise -or hell, he wasn't sure where he was-.

When he awoke from the electric shock, he was in some open cylinder. He was hovering in the middle of him, with his arm extended at shoulder level almost touching the sides of the cylinder. It was when he involuntarily blinked that he realized what was happening : he was back in his body. Even if he couldn't move that much, just moving the tip of his finger and feeling the coldness of the metallic cylinder was a sign that he was alive. The pain in his nerves had diminished, and he didn't feel the horrible inside burning sensation any more.

" Your patient is awake, Aloysius." A female voice said, which seemed to be coming from the outside of the cylinder.

" I was meditating on how to explain him what will be necessary to do to keep him alive." A voice responded. Like Andru's, it was an old voice, eroded by time. Yet if this one was cold too the intention in it seemed to be a bit warm.

" Hum, i can talk too" The young voice of Xaleer interrupted them.

The blueish apparition he saw previously was now standing in front of him. Same armor than Andru, but the helmet was strange. Never saw anything like it before, Xaleer thought.

" I freed you of Andru's curses, and dragged you from your comatose state they induced. Let me recall this through some pictures." The apparition said.

And then pictures began to flow through Xaleer's mind. Pictures of a ferocious fight between this person and Andru, with Andru having the edge for an instant before vanishing. Pictures of Xaleer's own body and spirit being dragged into this room. And then the talk between this apparition and a strange female alien hologram, while his body was put into the cylinder and his spirit laid down on the ground.

" His body will be rebuilt. But i can't do anything for his dark blood." The alien said, as the apparition was sending a massive amount of lightnings into some kind of receptor above the cylinder. The flow was divided in four, and those four bright lightnings enter the cylinder. Xaleer see through this strange storytelling way his own body hovering and glowing, as discharge of energy were transmitted by some hidden electrodes in the cylinder, causing the part of his body which had been impacted by the previous fight to heal almost instantly.

" I know. There are limits to our mutual knowledge. His spirit was darkened, but not broken." He described his spiritual state, as he leaned toward him, before kneeling right before him.

" We have both our part to repair. Yet you will have to fix this him when he wakes up." The female voice responded.

" Good, I should be able to put him back after I cleared him." Kallig said, as he was approaching a hand from the spiritual head of Xaleer, before catching a bit of reminiscent darkness from Xaleer's spirit. He then pull it out before letting it become dust in the air.

Through these memories Xaleer saw the long healing process, seeing both his body and spirit be fixed. Before the apparition make his mind flew into the cylinder and shocked him with those bright violet lightnings. He know understand what he perceived when he was in this white space.

Then the picture vanished of his spirit, after a time he couldn't put a duration on. He was still hovering in this cylinder, with the blueish apparition in front of him, looking at him from the dark glass plates on his helmet covering his dead eyes.

" As the great mother said, your body is now fixed. You don't have to be in the infinite machine." The ghost recalled, shutting down the magnetic field that was holding him.

Xaleer suddenly fell from his stand, losing his balance momentary and having to hold on the side of cylinder not to fall on the black ground. He then crouched down and jump from the limit of the cylinder to the ground, still struggling with his balance. He seemed to have some lag between his brain and muscles.

" You will have some trouble moving. Nothing surprising when you just retake control of your body." The ghost said.

" What.. What happened to me ?" Xaleer asked. He had ceased to know what was truly happening to him after Andru tortured him.

" You were attacked by a Sith ghost. He tried to possess you and I stopped him. Simple." Kallig replied, not wanting to give very long explanation involving the Force to a non-user. Well, to someone who at this moment was thinking he was a non force-sensitive.

" Why ? And Who are you ? Where am I ?" Xaleer kept asking, being more and more lost.

" Ah, younglings." Kallig sighted. " With their head always filled with questions."

" You were filled with questions too when you walk here for the first time, Aloysius." The hologram retorted, reminding Kallig of the sinister event who lead to his imprisonment here. Event he hoped he wouldn't have to explain these events right now.

" Well, to make things shorts, young mando'a. You are here in the dark temple of Dromund Kaas, which was built to contain me, Aloysius Kallig, fallen dark lord of the Sith and now black guard. If Andru attacked you it was only to change his physical anchor - in order to obtain a movable one-." Kallig explained.

" Then I shall thank you, al.. " Xaleer began to speak but had trouble with the first name of the ghost.

" Just stick with Kallig. I have no more title. The only one I get once, I cast it away." Kallig said, having seen his own offspring struggling with this old pronunciation.

" Kallig, you need to tell him now." The holographic alien lady insisted on something that the black guard was reluctant to say to the young men.

" What do you need to tell me ?" Xaleer wonder what those two were hiding, but at this precise moment he began to feel the painful inner burn. He felt from his stance, and would have hit the soil head on if Kallig hadn't stop his fall through the Force.

" I'm sorry young one. There are things that cannot be healed, not even through Rakata technology nor Sith alchemy." Kallig advocate with a resentful voice.

" You had to tell him the way. Even if it isn't the most pleasant thing it's always better than death !" The holographic lady exclaimed, while Xaleer suffering body was agitated by erratic movement.

" Tell me what ?" The mando'a screamed in pain.

" The black cinders Andru put in your blood. I cannot remove them without killing you due to the blood loss it would create." Kallig began to explain their failure.

" Then I'm sentenced to death ?" Xaleer said, or murmured, as the pain was exhausting for the young men.

" Well, the damage made by the possession by a Sith ghost can be blocked by the possession only. See that like taking a very long effect poison to survive a short effect one." Kallig said, this time with a sad tone. What he would impose on this men was certainly not what most adolescent wanted for their growth.

" You want to possess me ? Is this a to-do-thing on your list of quest for force ghosts or what ?" Xaleer said, angry for no reason against someone who was trying to help him, but pain was messing with his thoughts.

" It won't be a possession. More of a cohabitation." Kallig precised while stretching his ghostly arms toward Xaleer. Dark lines spiraled around Xaleer, as if snake where turning around of him. Xaleer did not understand what were those thingies, but when they vanished above his head he felt the burning diminish a bit to a more tolerable level.

" Sorry i did not understand immediately, pain is messing with my head." Xaleer apologized for his behavior.

" I can understand. This little alchemy trick i just used is usually efficient to silence pain, but in your case it can only reduce it." Kallig explained.

" Then you should begin the ritual right now." The great mother counseled.

" You're right. Hopefully I kept it here since all those days." Kallig said while extending an arm toward a dark corridor.

Some seconds later a knife flew in the room. Kallig reflectively tried to catch it, forgetting for an instant he was a ghost. It hit the ground but without a metallic sound. Xaleer took it and then look at it, puzzled by its strange nature. It had a laurel leaf blade in obsidienne, while the hilt was made of a sculpted bone, maybe a part of a human femur to be that large.

" I must warn you it will be a bit bloody." Kallig said, as Xaleer was holding the ritual knife.

" I can endure a bit of pain as long as this inner burning sensation is suppressed." Xaleer agreed to suffer.

" Very well. Take it, arm you with all you courage and make you blood flood. Cutting the wrist veins should be enough for what I need." Kallig inquired.

" May the force be with me then." Xaleer said as he slide the blade among his wrist, causing blood to pour out of the wounded flesh.

As it flood, Xaleer could see with horror what his blood has become. From a crimson red it was now a night dark. Then Kallig began to emit lightnings, making the blood evaporate and igniting the created vapors. The thick vapor Xaleer inhaled seemed irritating to say the least.

" Now that you have sacrificed your flesh, I can act. Basically what I'm going to do is merge my consciousness with yours." Kallig said, while walking toward the static body of Xaleer.

" Great. Now I will truly have a voice as my consciousness." Xaleer try to make fun of the solemn instant, but he only choked do to the vapor instead of laughing.

The ghost resumed its forward motion, and as he arrive right in front of Xaleer, he extended his right hand to touch with his thumb the forehead of Xaleer, while putting the left hand on his solar plexus. Of course Xaleer couldn't feel anything touching him.

" Let's begin." Kallig declared, and the ritual started. Kallig spiritual body began to fade while in the same time the veins of Xaleer's body were ignited of this bright violet. The feeling was not that painful compared to inner burn, but it was like if he swallowed an electric generator, he seemed to be filled with static electricity. And to add to the strangeness of the ritual, his skin was slowly surrounded by some bluish aura, the remains of Kallig embodiment.

And then his final remains had disappeared. Yet he did not. Like if someone had put a mic in his skull, he heard the voice of this Aloysius Kallig from the inside of his head, this being quite puzzling as the room was quite silent, with only electronic beeping from the Rakata machines filling the void.

_This is strange, to talk in the consciousness of someone_, Kallig said, feeling the torrent of emotions that was flowing through Xaleer's mind that he was now sharing.

" I admit it. A bit strange it is."

" What is going to be way stranger is if you talk back to Kallig at high voice like if you were alone." The holographic lady pointed out.

_She's right. But for now and the upcoming week it won't be a concern as no one will be around, _Kallig answered, realizing too that if he began to speak alone in crowded area people would find him crazy.

" It's already crazy enough to consider my mind as some kind of flat you're living as a roommate." Xaleer went sarcastic, lowering a bit his voice.

" Great. If your business is over, i guess you can finally help me break free too." The holographic lady exclaimed, waiting and wanting her freedom.

_She deserved freedom as much as me. Take the small truncated pyramid below the projector, it's her hard drive to say things short, _Kallig explained while projecting in Xaleer spirit the picture of the Rakata relics.

" I will get that."

He spend some time finding the opening mechanism, and after some try a small concealed door open to reveal the relic. It was indeed a small four face truncated pyramid, which was not that big : the length was half a meter, and the base was a squared which side was shorter than Xaleer's forearm. There was some square carved on it, making the pyramid look like some kind of little house, with the squares as its windows.

And with the pyramid below his arm, he directed himself toward the staircase Kallig indicated. It was a long spiral one, and he emerged only after maybe four minute of ascension in a level opening on a great hypostyle room, even if the staircase was still getting higher.

" I lost count of the step at two hundred." Xaleer said, as he walked between the massive pillars. The hypostyle room was so large that the tanks of the trade federation could have walked here, even between the pillars, or maybe parked between. The pillars were at least five meter wide, made of some grey granite.

_There's three hundred and seventy-six step below, and two hundred and five above. Above is my chamber, but an explosion ruin the staircase at some point, and there's nothing that worthy in my chamber._

" That's still a great number of steps. I did not find the temple to be so dept." Xaleer commented, as he walked through the hypostyle room toward it's front, where two stylized door were sculpted on the wall, with even the opening mechanism. However they seemed a bit too massive to be moved by any force to Xaleer.

_They can't. Our emperor made sure I was locked here forever. Until some mandalorian walk around of course, _Kallig reminded him of those fateful days, who he was nothing but a pawn of fate. Yet he survived to his emperor. He then showed the true little entrance which was at the end of a small corridor.

" I don't understand. Why did your own emperor want to lock you ?" Xaleer asked, not fully understanding those Sith manners.

_That's a story for another time. But don't make wait the great mother and go for the ship in which you come here, _Kallig replied, wanting to delay the explanation of his fall as a Sith.

" Good. Finally some fresh air." Xaleer exalted as he was outside the black structure, and was walking on the bridge above the black water.

_So, as your ship is near Andru's former tomb, it's to the East. Left when going out of the temple, _Kallig precised, as the dead planet of Dromund Kaas had no more geographic indicator, and the thick dark cloud prevent navigation based on the sun course.

" If it's day now, does that mean I spent a whole day in that cylinder ?" Xaleer just realized how much time has passed since he left Naboo.

_Actually you spent two days in the Rakata machine. And you're going to spent many days when I will teach you the ways of the Force on Korriban, _Kallig informed him what would be the first step on their future travel across the galaxy.

" And how are going to do about fuel for the hyperdrive ? Or just for food or water ?" Xaleer asked, thinking to more earthly needs.

_I think there are some abandoned ships on Korriban. And through the Force I will sustain you, I mean, the state of Sith ghost is to be stuck on a tightrope between biological and cosmic Force. You won't have to worry about those humans needs, _Kallig ensured him.

As they walk through dead trees and old metallic wreckage, Xaleer felt some melancholy coming from Kallig consciousness. "What could make him melancholic in such a empty place ?" Xaleer mused, but as they were now sharing their thoughts it was enough to trigger a response from the old black guard.

_I remember the last battle I saw here. It wasn't just Sith or Jedi that day who were fighting. For a moment they succeeded in putting their difference aside to bring down a common foe, our reborn emperor. Yet they fail to keep this fragile unity I help them get, _Kallig resumed the cause and aftermath of this gruesome battle, who turned a living world into this wasteland.

Kallig projected in his mind pictures of that day. Red, violet, blue and green lightsabers fighting yellow ones. White robes and dark armor against golden ones. And a nearly apocalyptic end, as massive lightnings were liberated from the top of the dark temple, killing and disintegrating indiscriminately people in both armies.

_One day you will have the entire story of this events too. But now we are arrived at your ship - I know you stole it, but it's yours now-. The great mother will be liberated, and we will go for the stars, _Kallig recalled their schedule.

" Here we are. So, I connect her hard drive, and she's free ?" Xaleer wondered himself what this alien female was. Or what was her reason to be here on this world.

He carefully put the pyramid on the floor of the ship. He had no idea how to connect that unknown technology to the ship. Besides, the ship was unknown technology for him too. The young mandalorian decided to use one of the plasma cutter he had let on board the ship. Slicing the base of the holoprojector, he manage to detach some wires from the electronic system. As he connected the wires to some side of the pyramid, putting them into the small holes it had on its face, the alien lady appeared on the holoprojector.

" Great. Well i guess this is goodbye." Xaleer waved to the Rakata AI, as she began to fade away, diffusing herself through the Holonet connexion.

" Maybe it's just a "see you again", the galaxy is small sometimes." She responded, and the last light on the holoprojector was shut off.

" Damn it, the power surge kill the holoprojector." Xaleer pointed out, as he could see only the now useless system.

_Does its memory contain something important ? If not there's no point in worrying. Just take off and I will show you the vector to Korriban_, Kallig said, feeling the memory of Xaleer about that thing were a bit controversial.

" This thing contained a goddamn message that send me right by mister Andru. So I won't complain about it." Xaleer let go his thought on this damned device.

_Good. But we will have to wait until we are out of the debris field to enter hyperspace,_ Kallig reminded.

The take off was silent. Kallig feel nothing as they went above Kaas city. So many glory days have slipped from his grasp because of the foolishness of himself and his successors. But now he could take amend of it. Black guard never conquer world, only knowledge, the fallen Sith reminded himself.

" There's just one problem with this ship, nothing is written in aurebesh, so i have some hard time reading the commands." Xaleer said, as he sat on the pilot siege.

_Let me see this through your eyes. I just need to see an instant to figure this language you have trouble to understand, _Kallig asked, then explain by thought that even if he could feel the surrounding of Xaleer through the Force it does not allow him to read encryptions. And as it was only a mere cohabitation of spirit, Xaleer had to let him use his body for those kind of needs.

" All right old man. See for yourself." Xaleer accepted, and for an instant his eyes glow of this light purple. This leading to a small laugh from Aloysius as he decipher the technical language of high galactic.

" So what's funny ?" Xaleer wondered what a ghost could find funny.

_Oh, nothing. This language, high galactic is merely another alphabet, use by bureaucrats or technicians. I will share the knowledge of this one with you right now, it's quite easy to learn it, _Kallig pointed out, finding a bit funny than mando'a didn't taught their son this language. Even if it was very used in ship.

" So, if I follow the rules of reading you just put in my head, this is K.. o… Korriban." Xaleer deciphered this new language, who was maybe a bit easier to write than aurebesh, when he think about it.

_It is. Now set us to Korriban, _The black guard suggested.

And Xaleer obeyed. Hopefully, it was at the limits of the back-up hyperdrive. It would just need one day to make a jump that would require only a few hours for modern class 2 hyperdrive, but back-up ones were always slower as they weren't designed to function only a few times, with very limited range.

The craft take off, flying above Kaas city, old capital of a fallen empire only because of the foolishness of their own emperor who only wanted to consume any thing to reach deity, as Kallig described the persona with resentment. Then it flew through the dark clouds, before exiting the atmosphere like if the craft itself never wanted to go back to this planet more than its actual user.

_Those debris are what was left of our fleet. The biggest part belong to the Valkyn station, named after a moff who initiate the idea of dagger-shaped ships. But i guess you never saw such ships, as the last remnants of our empire definitely disappear more than a__ millennia ago, _Kallig began a little lesson of history, even if he only felt the last battle of Sith against Jedi, but it create enough devastation that even a blind deaf comatose man could have felt it.

" What are we gonna do until we land on Korriban ? The backup hyperdrive is not very fast." Xaleer inquired, a bit of his spirit wanting to learn the powers of Kallig as quickly as possible to take his revenge against the Sith assassin who murder his parents.

_I have nothing against having revenge. Yet the force user you are talking about - I felt it on the verge of death - so don't worry about him. I will present you Sith philosophy later, _Kallig said, preferring to wait a bit for his great lessons.

" Why later ?" Xaleer didn't understand the reasons of this delays.

_Because you are on the verge of sleeping my young friend. Your sojourn in the Rakata machines didn't get you any rest. And I want a student fully awaken to listen to me, _Kallid declared, with an almost imperative voice.

" Very well, I will get some rest. At least I will know when I woke up if what I'm leaving right now isn't the death pulse of my last neurons." Xaleer sighted, still a bit uncertain of his future.

_May the Force be with you, young one, _Kallig wished him, as he separate a bit his consciousness from Xaleer's not to wake him up with his dithering about their future. Or about his past.

And coming from his past, he couldn't forget one female voice wishing him the same thing he just wished Xaleer. She was the only one that understand him back them. However, regrets were not something he could allow to hinder him. So like every time he thought about her, he conclude with sarcasm : " At least you had the right to rest in peace, little egoist."

**And So, this ends the first Arc. I merge some pieces of legends and canons, old and New in this story. I really like this Aloysius Kallig, a Sith who wasn't fully consume by darkness. But is darkness always the easiest and quickest way ? And is darkness an end without return ? Those are the questions I will try to dessert here… May the fourth be with you (Yes I know I missed the date but whatever…)**


	5. Arc Korriban 1: Khlorine Trifluorine

Sunlight awoke him. But not only sunlight, he also felt its warmth. Beside, the ship was not in motion any more. After rubbing his eyes still a bit close after the rest he took during the travel, he was met by the sight of red rocks. He stand up from the pilot seat, trying to have an overall view of his landing point. He was in the pit of a valley, in front of a half-ruined building. Only open trapezoidal windows welcomed him, without any glass in them.

_Here we are. Korriban, birthplace of the Sith. This landing pad is where the young apprentices once landed when arriving here to face the Sith trials. Go out of this ship, and through the building outside, _His spiritual companion declared, even if he know this young one would not receive the same trial now.

" I think your defense system is offline now." Xaleer commented, after he step out of the landing array of the stolen ship, when he saw a dual turbolaser turret half-destroyed by the fall of some rocks.

_It did not matter now. The threat today is not coming from the outside but the inside of this valley. Keep walking, your lessons will begin soon, _Aloysius resumed his indications, as the young mando'a was entering the building.

His path through wasn't easy. At some point, the roof had collapsed and rocks were blocking his way. Quite some time he had to climb a bit, or to walk on unbalanced rocks. And of course, when the roof hadn't collapsed, the floor had. He was forced one or two time to graze the wall of the building to avoid falling into dark holes without any life, and from where were emanating strange smells and chilling noise, which sound like insects noise, but way more frightening that the little insects he knew on Naboo.

_Welcome to the Valley of The Sith Lord, or Fallen Valley for some external observers. Here are the symbolic tumb of our great masters : Arunta Pall, a fallen Jedi, Naga shadow, our great uniter before the hyperspace war, Tulak Hord, my murderer, _Kallig described, as the young mando'a was finally heading out of the building.

" Why symbolic tumb ? They are not resting here, are they ?" Xaleer asked, as he was venturing a bit on the outside, in the middle of this valley, an old desiccated river.

_They are not indeed. Most of them simply vanished while dying. Those tombs were place of remembrance for the ones who worship them, _Kallig explained, before adding a direction for his apprentice, _Go straight for Ajunta Pall's tomb, there I will teach you the force basics._

" Stuff like telekinesis and such ?"

_A bit. But you will see there's a reason why i'm teaching you here, _Kallig said, before the body of Xaleer began to glow of this pale blue ghost color.

The two bodies were now separated, yet still entangled. Xaleer was still feeling Kallig's consciousness, a bit off, but still in his.

" I did not think you could go in and out so easily." The mando'a noticed, then he heard some noise coming from the tomb he was heading to.

_We are at a Force nexus. There are few in the galaxy that allow me to stay out without killing you, but it's better to demonstrate the Force abilities you will have to learn_, Kallig pursued, walking into the tomb too.

And then the noise source was finally in sight. A vision of horror for the young mando'a, a common sight for the ghost at his side. A khlor slug, giant insect with a linear body, hundred of little yet dangerous legs each carrying painful neurotoxins. Added to that a faceless circular mouth with hundred of teeth that was big enough to swallow Xaleer's head and it was understandable why the mando'a took a step back when he saw the imposing creature stepping forward on the step he was descending.

" That thing is huge. How do you want me to get rid of it ?" Xaleer muttered, not knowing if it had eyesight or hearing abilities.

_By killing it of course. But to boost a bit your will to survive and so your willpower, i think we need to spice things a bit, _the former Sith said, before raising an arm toward the roof of the tomb they just entered in.

Then a lightning come out of his phantasmic hand, and the entrance crumbled, letting Xaleer alone with the khlor. He was puzzled for a few second, not knowing what to do as his only way out was destroyed. And now the khlor was getting closer. Xaleer could sense his horrific smell, strange mixture of smell of rotting corpses and acids.

_There's no bigger will than the one to survive. Just express it_, Kallig suggested, standing calm behind the slightly afraid Xaleer.

The khlor keep crawling for one or two meter, almost getting close enough to be in range in one step or two. And from close it was maybe even fearful than ten meters away. But unlike when he foolishly faces Andru, this time he had a chance. He had gained power from this painful experience. And he was not wanting to suffer again from monstrosities of past eras.

" I WILL NOT DIE" Xaleer shouted, before instinctively stretching his arms forward, to repulse the oncoming threat. And it did repulse the threat. Tapping by instinct into his link with the Force, he repulsed the khlor back to the bottom of the stairs, where it rest motionless. And he didn't even notice at first, but in his furor he sent piece of the rocky stair at the khlor.

_Good. But it was only the first one. And I believe other will come soon, Keep walking, and above all, keep fighting. Fight is a good teacher as much as life, as life is a fight. A fight for the freedom to live another day._

" Thanks for the philosophic lessons, but I don't think they would be useful right now. Maybe a lesson on telekinesis would be more useful." Xaleer replied, as he was hearing other insect noises.

_Of course, i was dithering a bit._ _Yet you already used it when throwing those rocks. With practice accuracy and power will come, _Aloysius claimed, inviting his apprentice to keep marching in the penumbra of the tomb.

" Let's keep walking then." Xaleer replied nonchalantly, ignoring the pain to come in the penumbra of the tomb, which was lighten by diffuse light without any clear source.

And to be honest, practice he had. Right after exiting the stair he was met by a small group of those damn khlors. Hopefully there were slightly littler than the first one he encountered. Lifting some small rock with his hand, he threw at the small khlors. Yet when he threw it, he accidently transferred more speed through the force, quickening it to a point way further his muscle could achieve. It hit the khlor with such strength it went through it, leaving a gap in the slug body, where fluid flow, filling the room with an acid smell.

_Strength when throwing something is not always a matter of the weight you throw, but of speed with which you throw the said rock. Now try to raise one and throw it, without touching it._

Xaleer saw first Kallig showing him the motion, raising a piece of fallen stalactite before sending it through a khlor of medium size with a swift motion. But when it was it turn, he found the rock quite hard to lift. On the first try he did, Kallig had to assist him. But after cleansing two or three rooms by just throwing accelerated rocks or making fall salactites from the roof of the rooms, he could use this Force throw with a bit of ease, but he was still far from raising mountains or anything bigger than himself.

_There was less little khlors and more greater ones in the last room you cleansed. This mean only one thing: we are approaching from the nest. I will help you a bit for this step in this tomb._

" I suppose it's because there's some kind of queen insect there, or something equivalent ?" Xaleer said, while lifting a rock and throwing into one khlor who was standing guard at the entrance of a hypostyle room.

_You will see, young one, _Kallig promised with a somewhat scary tone.

And when he stepped over the khlor, he finally saw it: a great body with some kind of gigantic legs strapped on the columns of the room. The body has two part: one lower abdomen which was producing khlor at a fast pace, and an upper part where the head and some littler legs were situated. But like all these rooms, water infiltrations caused stalactites to grow. A plan quickly grow into Xaleer's spirit.

_Go, make those stalactites fall on her abdomen. It should destroy her ability to reproduce. I will handle them with lightings of my own, _Kallig approvate the plan of his apprentice.

The plan went quickly in motion, with Xaleer stretching his arm upward the stalactites, which slightly oscillated before falling with great crash on the body of the khlor queen, crushing unborn small khlors, but Xaleer had no consideration for those pests. Kallig on his part, was in front of Xaleer, and was shocking all insects that come close with lighting from his both hand, burning their body, contributing in filling the room of this acid smell, as more and more insect were dying. But the queen insect refused to die: she separated herself from her abdomen and rushed with open mandibules and intentions as clear as a nabooan lake.

Was it the action of the dark side, its print on her ? But for a somewhat unknown reason the lightnings of Kallig could not burn the khlor queen like all of her minions. And in a matter of seconds she was on Xaleer, her forelegs terminated by some kind of piques high, ready to strike at the young human.

But he had gradually learn the Force pull while Force Pushing the rocks. After all, Force grabbing something or someone was just a measured, refined Force push.

_Damn dark side print. Sometimes it negates some dark side abilities, giving some invulnerability against lightning or Force drain._

" Don't worry I think I've got thi.." Xaleer said, but was cut in his talk as the giant insect stroke. Instinctively he raised his arms toward the attacker. But rationally, he tapped into the Force, not perceiving the khlor queen as a threat but as something prehensile.

Both combatants were frozen, Xaleer by his focus, and the khlor queen within Xaleer's grasp. Both didn't move for some time, before Kallig put a hand on Xaleer's shoulder. The latter suddenly felt a surge of energy within him, and this gain of power allowed him to lift the insect above the ground. It began to move in an erratic fashion, trapped into a prison pf invisible wall.

_I give you strength. Now use it to obtain victory_, Kallig ordered, imperative.

" Die, ugly pest." Xaleer expressed his disgust toward the insect.

Then he closed his hand. The Force which was lifting the khlor began to pressure it, choking it to a point far above suffocating. The exoskeleton of the insect was squeezing under the combined strength of two Force-user. But Xaleer had yet to master his choking abilities, and he let the Force act until the khlor explode, covering the room - and him partially- of her internal acid fluids. With a bit of disgust, Xaleer get rid of it by using a sharp leg of a dead khlor as a scraper.

_Don't worry, it is not too toxic. _

" Whatever, it's not like my clothes were already torn off by walk in the wood of Naboo, and the torture of a Sith ghost." Xaleer went in full sarcastic mode.

_Here you discover the wider aspect of telekinesis. In the following room I will show you lightnings, _Kallig described the next step of their journey within Ajunta Pall's tomb.

" It's going to be shocking."


	6. Arc Korriban 1: Enlightingment

The next room was without any pest inside. But it did not possess any opening toward the outside either. Only a sculpture was in the room, facing Xaleer when he entered in the latter. It pictured a side face Sith, with his leg slightly opened and an arm stretched toward the entrance, with his open palm toward Xaleer. The sculpture seemed quite realistic, like it captured the motion of a Sith of antediluvian times.

_Those following rooms cannot be opened by anything but lightnings, _Aloysius indicated, as he stepped inside next to his spiritual compagnon.

" I suppose that producing lightnings is a bit more complicated than becoming angry and screaming unlimited power." The mando'a guessed, waiting for some explanation that were going to be painful. Learning telekinesis was quite painful anyway, especially the burn of the acid fluids those khlors spreaded everywhere. It wasn't as painful as the inside burn but it did hurt.

_What_, Aloysius wondered when he heard the last words of Xaleer. _Anyway, I will shock you, in order for you to understand how it is to feel lightnings within your body, and then you will have to redirect them toward the sculpture._

" Well, hopefully you didn't teach me pyrokinesis. Or i guess you'll have to burn me, right ?" Xaleer replied with a bit of repartee, but with a bit of fear toward his next trial.

_Do not fear the power you're going to wield one day. Or it will burn you inside. Force lightnings is merely an extent of your willpower through passions. Focus on your passions instead of the fear of pain, young one, or you will feel again this inner burn feeling many times more painful than what Andru did to you. Do not fear the power. Feel it._

" Right. I will follow your teaching, master." Xaleer agreed to this painful method, stretching one arm toward Kallig's ghost body, and the other toward the sculpture.

Then he began to search in his mind for a powerful passion that would allow him to bypass his fear of pain. What could he choose ? Revenge ? Anger ? Pride ? The spectrum of passion was almost infinite, even for a sixteen-years old boy.

_Revenge is always a double edged sword. Anger often consumes you if you cannot channel it. Pride can cause shame, but a mastered prime is a good passion to catalyse the what could you be proud of ?_

The answer from Xaleer was quite long to come. For some time, he search again in his memory, of something that could make him proud. Nothing in is past could. Nothing right now either. But the future, even filled with over numerous contingencies, could contain something he would be proud of.

" If I am successful in learning to bend the Force, and if I die one day fighting as a Force-user, I would be proud to having become a warrior." Xaleer tried his best to explain this pride of warrior that characterise his origin

_A nice passion. Even if most Force-user chose to vanish in the cosmic Force, there's nothing wrong in being proud of your achievement, when you're ready to jump from the cliff you climb without looking downward. Are you well focused now ?_

" Yes. May the Force be with me then." Xaleer replied, focusing on a fictional image create solely in his mind, seeing himself being reunited with his parents, looking at him with pride.

Kallig let the Force flow through him, focusing on the passion he felt millenia ago on this very planet. And then he transmitted this flow toward Xaleer using Force lightnings. Five lightnings born of his fingertips went straight for Xaleer's open palm, spreading sparks of electricity as it met the skin of the human.

The feeling in Xaleer's hand was quite specific to say the least. For him, it seemed like his vein were open, and through his open veins was flowing in a flow of new blood, of a new kind of energy. He feared for a moment he would feel this inner burn sensation, but him being focus solely on one passion get his mind rid of this thought. Then the current of energy went into his arm, closing on his shoulder.

But he wasn't ready to have the Force flow right through his abdomen. He felt himself hyperventilating and with his heartbeat accelerating to crazy level, forcing him to put a knee down to avoid falling.

_Bypass your physical limits. The usage of the Force has none but the one of your mind. Chase the feeling of pain._

With a growling of pain, Xaleer managed to stand up again. In his mind, he was now seeing many more figures than his parents, maybe some of his future he would know but couldn't identify yet. And all of them seemed to be reassuring him, helping ignoring the pain. He could touch the power, conduct it, without fearing it now.

_Focusing on himself is a key in the learning of the dark side. This is what the Jedi who are externally minded feared this power because they cannot focus themselves solely on the acquisition of power. That's too much Sith-like for them,_ Kallig let his guess about the majority of the Jedi being unable to deflect lightning without their saber.

Now, how many time did they spent after they entered this room to learn Force lightning ? Seconds, minutes, or hours ? He couldn't know for sure. But what he was sure of what he was seeing : him absorbing lightnings, and about to emit them.

Lightnings come out of his stretched arm with a thunder-like cracking, and went right to the palm of the sculpture, where it waned in a dash of sparks.

It was quite hard for Xaleer to keep being standing up for all the time needed. Quite a few times his whole body was on the verge of fainting, he put a knee down one or two times to recover a bit, but in the end the willed desire was obtained. The sculpture, overload with electricity, began to glow in a faint blue. And then it take a step back, and almost enter in the wall behind, straight as a I. Right after that, the wall began to slide into the ground, opening the entrance to a new room when another Sith sculpture was standing.

" This was unexpected to say the least, this sculpture disappearing like this." Xaleer shared his surprise of this event.

_Every trial is different here. It's not like there's some kind of consciousness within the tomb, but it somewhat adapt to the person doing the trial._

" I guess this mean my trials are different than your's or your offspring's." Xaleer said, moving into the next room.

This time, it was always the same sculpture with the frieze dress the Sith usually wore to conceal themselves in the shadow, but its stance was not the same. Instead of being profilside and with one arm stretched, it was facing Xaleer with both arm stretched toward him, one leg slightly folded and the other straight but behind him. It seemed he was pushing something or someone, or resisting against some thrust.

" So what have I to do here ?" Xaleer asked, knowing his now very limited capacities with lightnings not allowing him to target the two open palm with one arm.

_You're smart young one. You cannot just be the conductor for my lightnings here. You must become a capacitor too. _

" Capacitor ?" Xaleer repeated the word without understanding too much at first, having only basic knowledge about electronics.

_I will shock you bust instead of letting it pass through your all body, you will have to contain the energy I will transfer you in your arms. And then you will shock the sculpture._

" I see what you mean by capacitor now."

_Let's start this. Focus on your passions. I will feel when you'll be ready._

And as Kallig said, he felt when Xaleer was focused. He felt when fear had been cleaned from his mind. Then he shocked him, lightnings going from one ghost to a human. Of course Aloysius could see it was hard for the young Force user to bear the energy he was transmitting him without being burned. Yet the changes he underwent through Andru's torture and his healing process make his body stronger than a normal human. And he suffered so much that little pain was kind of relative now.

" Just to bear seemed to be almost simpler than to let it through me." Xaleer commented, feeling the energy within his arm, but which wasn't going further than his shoulder.

_Well it's easier because it didn't go near your heart, lungs or any vital organs. No give this energy to the sculpture, _Aloysius inquired, as he cut the flow of lightning.

Xaleer turned toward the sculpture, with his forearms and palm engulfed with static electricity. He faced it with a firm stance, adopting a similar stance than the sculpture's, and then released the current. Again, he felt the inner burn when it went out of his body, but as it was his doing, it was way more bearable.

Slowly charging through Force lightnings, the sculpture began to glow like the latter. And then took a step back before sliding into the wall, which slide itself in the red ground of Korriban, making fly a bit of this white dust that was everywhere in those tombs.

" I guess this white dust has nothing in common with the black cinder of Dromund Kaas ? " Xaleer let his curiosity speak.

_Besides that they are both remains of living creatures, no. This white dust is only what remains of the bones of the Sith apprentices who failed their task. The quantity of it is a good show of our former power._

" Well, That mean many tried, but a great number of them failed."

_Indeed. Only the strongest shall live in the Sith teaching. Yet this very teaching I followed for millenia are flawed, like all teaching are._

" Hum, I see." Xaleer replied, before letting a little sigh of relief as he entered the last room. " I sincerely hope it's the last of this tomb."

_Maybe. That I cannot be certain, _Aloysius certified.

This apparently last room was containing a Sith sculpture too. This one was straight as a I, but three meter in front of it there was some carved stoned but the carving were recovered by a thick layer of white bone dust.

" So I must walk on the stone to trigger some event ?" Xaleer shared his assessment at high voice, even if it wasn't that useful to speak with someone who was sharing his thoughts.

_You will. But be cautious, this time, i won't be the one shocking you. Sith trials are nothing of mercyful._

Inspired by his curiosity -and the slowly growing boredness- he step on it. The sculpture stretched his arms of rock toward him, before starting a true dash of yellow lightnings on him. It was so sudden and so fierce than the young human had to take a step back, mimicking the stance of the second sculpture to keep his balance. Those yellow lightnings seemed to be more mechanical ones, without any emotions in them. They weren't the product of a passionate being.

_Good way of thinking. Henceforth you can realize you can be more powerful through willpower than mechanisms, _Aloysius agreed with the reasoning of the mando'a.

" Ajunta, your trials were well-made. But they end here and now!" Xaleer said, emphasizing the last three words, while producing lightnings of his own and still blocking the ones of the sculptures.

It was a nice picture to see: two flow of lightnings, one yellow and precise, and the second of a very bright blue, a bit more imprecise but passionate ones. This was the first time he produced them, not conducting or amplifying them. It was a different feeling. Where acting as a capacitor awake the inner burn feeling, producing them seemed to cool the fire Andru put in him through this cinder. And as his lightnings overloaded the mechanism of this tomb, he finally grasp what those cinder could be.

_Yes, they are the remaining of living beings. Very tormented and passionate ones, who died for most of them through horrific processes, _Kallig acknowledged the origin of this cinder, and why they make people who come in touch with them so much passionate.

" At last, I have discovered these two powers of Sith: telekinesis and Force lightnings." Xaleer exalted, feeling even more relief when he felt a flow of fresh air from the surface.

_You discovered them, it's true. But you only touch a bit of the power than once Sith possessed. Let me show you a bit more while we are exiting the first dark lord of Sith tomb's._

On their way out, Kallig indeed showed him power that either frighten or rejoice him : tempest of thunder, horrors of the Darkness some Sith could summon or do on the body of their opponents. Some could disintegrate the bodies with lightnings of infinitesimal level of power, or destroy them from the inside by bending and amplifying their inner Darkness. However Kallig showed him their counterparts too, in the achievement some Jedi managed to obtain, blocking Sith abilities, or using very strong shielding abilities

And of course Xaleer was quite surprised when he was finally outside. Because night has already fallen. Only some diffuse light that was coming from behind a massive metallic door on top on a long volley of stair was lighting the place. The door was flanked by two pairs of column.

_Our Sith academy. There you will practice these abilities you learn today as well as the ways of the blade, until I see you being strong enough to learn from the field that this galaxy is._

" I understand. Mastering the Force seemed to be a long and hard way, even through Darkness." Xaleer analysed, while getting up to the small academy parvis.

_And Jedi always think that the dark side is just a quick and easy way, _Kallig said with a small sarcastic laugh. _It's a quick way if you burn in the flames of your ambition, but a long one if you keep the flames of your ambition strong enough to highlight the way in the penumbra, and checked enough so they will not blind you._

" That is a good explanation. And now, how do we open this door ?" Xaleer asked, looking at the door, which was a three meter high compartmented door of a thick metallic alloy. Every compartment was housing a diagonal cross and in the middle of it some octogonal icone. The lowest has been damaged too much, rendering them unidentifiable. But the highest one were bearing a circle in its center, with arrow going in all direction from the center of the circle to the limits of the octogonal shape.

_The sign of our last great empire. Our second empire. Vitiate made the Sith empire the most powerful faction in galactic history, then cast us aside like a children who just want a new toy because the old one is not shining enough, _Kallig said with haste and anger, hating himself for his mistakes in this era. _But back to this door, it countain dozens of mechanism that must be unlock by a Sith Lord only. _

" I haven't reached that level yet." Xaleer pointed out.

_That I can do it, _Kallig said, stretching his fantomatic arms toward the door, shocking it with lightnings to activate some systems while using telekinesis for others. In the past it could have required more than one Sith to open it. But today he was enough to open the massive doors, which open toward the inside of the building.

Two sculpture of guards with one knee down greeted them in the first trapezoidal corridor, which was becoming a great open room on to level, but with only one staircase still standing. On the center of it was a pyramidal obelisk with a small cylindrical base. And in the middle of it was a small pyramid of glass which was emitting the diffuse light. Having no opening on the outside was removing all possibilities to see the difference between day and night from the inside.

_This obelisk turn the inherent corruption of this place, of all soul that suffered here and left their print here, into light through some rakata technology. And it prevent any local faun to enter in the building, _Kallig specified.

" Nice place to study if it wasn't that dusty. Never like to clean my room to be honest." Xaleer gave his appreciation of the place.

_Don't worry, even millennia old Sith ghost were teenager at some point in time, _Kallig laugh of Xaleer's remarks, feeling the place with his cold, old laugh.

They were going to stay here for a while, both had this certainty. But what will they do when they would be outside this place was yet to be decided.


	7. Arc Korriban 1: Ways of Warrior

The days passed without any major differences. Xaleer did carve the days in the small dormitories he slept, but sometimes Lost the count. Both would know how much time passed when they would go back to a more inhabited world, with the intergalactic standard holonet time.

Days of work seemed quite long for Xaleer. Kallig had grown some patience in millennia, but he was a fully intransigent teacher. If Xaleer didn't have any rival like previous Sith which practiced there skills here, it doesn't change anything to the fact that Aloysius wanted to forge him into a being of power and willpower. Of course Xaleer wasn't becoming an all-powerful being, but through weeks of practice he achieved better abilities in the field of telekinesis and lightnings, moving pieces more quickly, with much accuracy and strength. In the field of Force lightnings he could summon them quicker and stronger, with one or two hands. He even managed to use both powers at once for some time. Yet he couldn't lift his ship or resist the full strength of Kallig's lightnings, when his teacher resorted to lightning tempest, surrounding Xaleer by very powerful spark of electricity. This he could only withstand for mere seconds before being heavily burned. Indeed many times Kallig had to heal his student, learning him to heal himself through this, but at this point Xaleer could only heal small cuts.

However there was once field where Kallig was quite surprised at first, when Xaleer pick a dual staff to train at melee combat while Kallig was possessing an old training droid. He was humanoid besides an head with a capula shape, who could see at 360 degree in combat.

" You pick this weapon. Strange choice for a mandalorian. Usually your kind uses one or two vibroblades." Aloysius said, using the vocabulator of the droid, while he picked a simple blade for him. He lived prior to the use of vibroblades anyway.

" My father hadn't the time to build me this weapon you quoted. Only to reuse piece of commercial federation droid to make me some kind of electrostaff." Xaleer justified, before getting in a ready stance, holding his staff at his right side with both hand. His father told him this stance doesn't show any sign of the future attack or defense, giving a bit of surprise.

" An unusual stance. But i am not a usual fighter anyway." Kallig judged Xaleer's stance before attacking from the side.

Quickly Xaleer stepped back a bit before enacting a blocking with his staff, twirling from his guard. Kallig followed by a series of cut, which Xaleer blocked by stepping back while twirling his weapon toward the ceiling or the ground, trying to keep his blade in motion to find an opening in Kallig's strikes. But on this fight he never had the time to, as Kallig stroke hard the next second, using the superior strength of the droid to kept him locked with one robotic hand and using a free hand to shocked Xaleer by surprise. The erratic movement induced by the lightnings allowed Kallig to go through his guard, striking with the flat of this blade on Xaleer's hilt. If the blood didn't flow, it did hurt a lot.

" You need to use the Force when duelling. Otherwise your bladework is good, but maybe the Force and the blade together will allow you to bypass me." The non-human voice produced by the vocabulator spoke.

" I will follow this notice and try to implement my fighting style." Xaleer agreed.

_However, Fighting while using the Force can be hard if you are not heavily focus on yourself. This heavier inner focus needed is one of the reason Jedi rarely use the Force in battle with the exception of telekinesis, as they don't use the Force for themselves, _Kallig pointed out. Even if it came first of their code, who wasn't mean to train warrior, but monks studying the mystery of the Force, yet with a closed source of data about it.

And Xaleer began to follow this advice. It was quite hard to use the Force while dodging strikes or just fighting. Most of the time, he try to use basic telekinesis as a way to distract his foe, but it was not enough. This droid he was fighting could see everything around him, like if he had eyes on his back. Which he really had, to be exact.

Thus, he looked more toward other use of the Force while fighting. Throwing his weapon wasn't very efficient by itself, unlike lightsabers it could not cut through the droid. Even if the impact could hurt it a bit, it could not cut his knee and paralyse it for exemple. Moreover, the staff wasn't very aerodynamic, and when throw it didn't rotate like lightsaber thrown did, if the picture of this capability Kallig showed him were true.

However, even if he needed to use one hand for telekinesis in order to get his staff back, with the free hand he could use lightnings during the throw. Kallig judged this as a good implementation, and foster him in this way, combining quick strikes with lightnings, or transmitting lightning through the blade.

So he had to learn to move his staff with only one hand, in order to have one free hand to use lightnings or telekinesis. Kallig did not need to, as his advanced capacities in telekinesis allowed him to control the droid while throwing rock or even other blade to distract his opponent. The first times Xaleer took many hits to his back, resulting in Kallig having to heal broken ribs or dislodged vertebrates. But all of this at least had the benefit to reinforce his physical strength, yet while keeping a needed flexibility for the evasive moves such as rolls and even sumersault. Doing the latter while keeping an eye on his opponents was hard too, and while using the Force to deflect an incoming throwing object or lightnings even harder.

All of his accomplishment were reached in what would his final fight with a simple training staff. And through this fight, Kallig taught him the old Sith code, forcing him to fight almost instinctively while giving his thoughts and analyses on the lines of the Sith code.

" There's no peace, There's only passion. What do you see in this?" Kallig asked, striking at Xaleer who was in his ready stance.

Xaleer countered a few strikes before responding, while trying to emit lightnings from his blade, having block the blade of the droid for some seconds. This time the knee failed to support him, and the droid had to roll backward to evade a circular strike of Xaleer's staff.

" This mean eternal peace is unreachable, due to our nature of passionate being. Yet temporary peace can be achieved in one's heart or after battles."

Then the exchange kept raging on. Both combatants strike at each other in quick motion. Xaleer tried to pull out a similar move after blocking a low strike, but Kallig caught the lightning and send it back to his sender, not without heavily amplifying him, while saying :

" Through passion, I gain power."

To this Xaleer took some time to respond. Even if he lately gained some lightning resistance, Kallig's were too much to be withstand directly for now. Still, he freed a hand from his staff, blocking the current from Kallig's hand, slowly closing with it, while he finally answered to Kallig's assumption.

" When I'm fighting with enough passion in my fight, when I'm dedicating enough will power, my capacities are more opened, giving me much power. Yet this doesn't mean I must become a slave of passion as a sufferance to fight passionately."

Then he almost touched the robotic hand through which Kallig was emitting lightnings, without taking a single step back on the saber shock they were engaged into. The combined lightnings of both intertwined for a bit, bright light blue and bright light violet, before the two of them were repulsed by a sudden explosion.

Both recovered without any major issue, Xaleer by a roll and Kallig by a backward flip, using the greater speed of the droid. Xaleer then tried to throw his weapon right at Kallig, but as he had to avoid a very strong lightnings bolt the next second, failed in controlling the motion of his weapon, which Kallig caught easily, even if it was rotating on himself. And then, without freeing his arm from the weapon he was holding, Kallig summon a massive quantity of lightnings from his robotic hands, declaring:

" Through power I gain strength."

This time, Xaleer caught the lightnings. And as Kallig said, he gain strength. He had gained strength more than ever this last weeks, he knew it. Even when Kallig threw a thick disk, this time made of darker violet lightnings, he kept his stance. It was harder than anything, but now, by dedicating himself to this fight, living only for the moment of this fight, he finally understand this lesson of strength. You don't have to try. Just act and fight.

" When you gain power while acting passionately, you are more focused on the strength you will put on your fight. Thus, you gain strength and willpower."

Then he stroke back at the same time than Kallig was shocking him again. Another time, the two lightnings flow intertwined, almost becoming of a pure white. At many points during this exchange of pure strength, willpower and energy through the Force, Xaleer thought he was going to lose, but when he stopped thinking about the Idea of losing he managed to have a better hold on the current he was withstanding. But it was not his action who ended this fight entirely. The droid Kallig was controlling showed sign of weakness after having so much current through his systems for so long. And thus it failed to keep his hold when Xaleer Force-grabbed his weapon, which was quite difficult as he had to contain the lightnings through only one hand.

" Through strength I gain Victory !" Xaleer screamed while he used this weapon to deflect the incoming lightnings by emitting his own while striking. And he claimed his victory when he stroke hard at the droid, preparing his attack by holding his staff like a spear, taking some momentum before thrusting his weapon while emitting lightnings through hit. The half-paralysed droid was hit by the full strength of the impact. If he was holding a true blade he would have pierced it for true.

" Through victory my chains are broken." Xaleer claimed his victory once more, lifting the droid before choking him so hard that the already damaged power cell burst the droid into burning pieces.

_And then you will be broken_, Kallig appeared behind him, and shocked him from behind, surprising Xaleer as he thought the fight was over.

" Damned, that was unforeseen." Xaleer admitted, when he stand up after his very short loss of consciousness due to the sudden lightning strike. " Who add this line ?" He then asked, having previously read the Sith code from some holocron Kallig made him open to see different fighting style in order to know how to fight them.

_A dark Force-user by the name of Kreya. Because true wars never end. There's always our humanity that yet make us passionate being, but restrain us from reaching total perfection. Your own will and moral are your eternal chains, _Kallig explained this new line while showing him the picture of a woman in dark clothes with three violet lightsaber hovering around her.

" In other words, I'm an eternal student." Xaleer guessed, as he put his staff back in place in his rack.

_You have a good point. Yet I am too. We are both eternal teachers and students. To assume that I would be a Force master would only be plain arrogance_, Kallig responded to the assertion of his student.

_Yet you can say you have reached some level of mastery in this fight_, Kallig intervened before Xaleer could say anything.

" Does that mean I will construct a lightsaber ?" Xaleer hoped to upgrade a bit his armament before going back into the civilised worlds.

_No. To be honest I never constructed any. The one I give to my offspring I took it on the dead corpse of a Jedi I killed on this planet when they came to turn it into this red desert, _Kallig replied, with the last part of his response filled with enough hatred to consume three solar system.

" Then what ?" Xaleer asked, a bit deceived to stay with a simple staff.

_I only said I cannot help you create a lightsaber. In my era we forged Sith blades. This is what I will help you create tomorrow, _Kallig cooled his worried student, while showing him a few pictures of those blade in his mind, some with guards or not, with raws of barbs or not. But Kallig was already seeing in the gladdened mind of his student what ye was willing to create...

**Thus end the first Arc of Korriban, Xaleer discovers a bit of force power, Kallig remembers a bit of his past.. **


End file.
